Political Quotes

“I stand in this Chamber as a strong supporter of the steel industry. In fact, I would match my record of support for the steel industry, for steelworkers, and for steel retirees, with any person in this Chamber or in the other Chamber. We have had a long history in western Pennsylvania--from my days in the House and prior to that--in the steel industry. We have dealt with crises, one after another, in this industry. The most recent crisis has perhaps been the most crippling, costing lots of companies going into bankruptcies, costing lots of steel jobs, and, tragically, lots of steel retirees losing their health care benefits. In the last session of Congress, I worked with Senator Rockefeller to follow through with the U.S. steelworkers' No. 1 priority, which is to try to get a quota bill passed in the Senate. I worked very hard on my side of the aisle, and we got a majority of our Members to vote for a quota on steel imports. The other side of the aisle was not so generous. In fact, my recollection is, if we had gotten just half the Democrats, we would have been able to pass that, but we did not. So we failed in the No. 1 request from the United Steelworkers Union. Last year, at the beginning of this session, management and labor got together, retirees got together, and they came up with their No. 1 priority for this Congress. It was to file a section 201 action, to try to find comprehensive relief for the steel industry.”